Cost of Living Sees Australians Less Engaged With Arts and Reading

Entertainment, social connection, and a desire to understand other perspectives and cultures continue to be the most common reasons for the desire to attend.

A visitor attends the opening of French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts and Goya: Drawings from the Prado Museum at NGV International in Melbourne, Australia, on June 25, 2021. Graham Denholm/Getty Images for NGV

Australians are visiting arts events and festivals less frequently, with price and location the main barriers to attendance, according to an arts survey released on Sept. 19.

Creative Australia released the 2022 National Arts Participation Survey. It provided the first comprehensive study of Australians’ engagement with arts and creativity since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the results are based on a nationally representative sample of 9,396 people.